If anyone has earned the Spike Lee-like right to put “A Suda51 Trip” on the cover of his game, it’s Goichi Suda, the face of Grasshopper Manufacture and the man behind games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes. Suda’s eccentric demeanor arguably pales in comparison to that of his games, which pull from a wide array of diverse influences to create experiences unlike any other, though sometimes at the expense of accessibility.

Much as I’ve admired his creative endeavors, I hoped the influence of original Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami — his co-collaborator on Shadows of the Damned — would smooth out the rough edges in his work and generate a more easily enjoyable action affair. To some extent, that’s exactly what’s happened here, but the horror-tinged shooter loses very little of Suda’s trademark oddness in the process. In fact, it seems like a spiritual sibling to last year’s peculiar favorite, Bayonetta. Where that release saw a former Capcom director tackling the Devil May Cry formula with outlandish new elements, Shadows of the Damned does much the same with Resident Evil 4′s template.

Damned follows Garcia Hotspur, a wildly foul-mouthed demon hunter who dives into Hell to rescue his beloved Paula, who’s been claimed by the lord of the underworld. It’s sort of like Dante’s Inferno, except with a floating flaming skull sidekick (Johnson) who turns into various firearms, plus a near-constant stream of sexual references. Hotspur’s quest very much looks and plays like a lightly refined take on Resident Evil 4, as you hold down a trigger to use your weapons and slay packs of zombie-like creatures, while also solving the occasional puzzling scenario. Damned’s big shift in the formula concerns a darkness that overtakes the screen, which gradually saps away your life force as you struggle to light up the area or blast various gems to do away with the poisonous shade. It pops up sparingly, but adds a thick layer of fevered tension to the typical enemy-blasting routine.

In fact, the adventure so closely mirrors that six-year-old game at times, that it comes at the expense of combat and navigational fluidity; pressing a button to jump down a tiny ledge every time is a minor annoyance, and the game also occasionally ignores weapon-swapping commands in the heat of battle, which is a bit more distressing. But otherwise, the action entertains — especially in the later half, when your steadily enhanced weapons take on an even more violent tone. Your pistol (the Boner) eventually earns the ability to fire sticky bombs and temporarily becomes the sniper-rifle-like Big Boner, while the Teether (which fires actual teeth) transforms into a rapid-fire machine gun with homing capabilities. As the weapons become more powerful, so does your feeling of dominance in this twisted world, and the exciting and well-designed boss battles really hammer home that sensation.

And yet, despite Shadow of the Damned being a more approachable adventure than the typical Grasshopper creation, it’s what you see and hear over the course of the 10-12 hour campaign that really sticks with you. Fantastic creature designs — especially Fleming, the towering, six-eyed antagonist — make a strong impact, as do the environments. Hotspur’s apartment appears for no more than 10 minutes, yet it’s the perfect example of the developers’ aesthetic care, as the space is considerably detailed (it includes no fewer than seven guitars) and feels like somewhere you’d actually want to live, sans the invading demons. Also impressive at times: the game’s scripting, despite a heavy reliance on vulgar and suggestive quips. I was sick of hearing “Taste my big boner!” long before the 50th time it played in a 10-minute stretch, but aside from scooping the gutter a few too many times, the dialogue and delivery often impress, along with the eclectic and wide-ranging soundtrack.

But in typical Suda51 fashion, it’s the surprising oddities that help turn Shadows of the Damned from a pretty good take on a modern favorite into something you’ll contemplate long after Hotspur’s hellish quest is complete, such as a boss whose every cut-scene action is backed by a Blues riff on a Harmonica. Well, no, actually that one is explained by one of the twisted storybooks you encounter along the way. But other elements — such as blasting mounted goat heads to emerge from darkness, fighting a horse that launches dark matter from its rear end, and a chunk of the game that’s played as a 2D shoot-’em-up in a papercraft world — are among the many inexplicable delights that turn an at-times formulaic shooter into a truly memorable experience. Just don’t spend too long trying to make sense of it.